Gone Forever
by Apocalyptic-Mess
Summary: Sam's used to leaving people behind; he's never actually known what it's like to stay somewhere permanently. Leaving the first time is always the hardest. And Sam never forgot her. Set in S1


**Gone Forever**

Chapter 1

**THEN**

"Dude, cheer up, Sammy. It's not like this is the first time we've had to move schools this year." Dean said in an attempt to cheer Sam up. It wasn't exactly working as Sam stared out the backseat window of the Impala. John sat in the front seat, silent as the grave.

Sam was ignoring Dean, or trying to at least. His brother was a right pain in the ass himself when he wanted to be. Sam really didn't care about the whole moving towns thing; again. The thing he cared about was that recently, the subject of what Sam and Dean would do after school was coming up more and more in conversation. John assumed the boys would be hunters; the family business.

Sam thought differently. Dean was at a loss, stuck in the middle of the argument. He wanted, no, he _needed _to look after his brother. It was his job, first and foremost. Even more so than hunting, but his dad . . . His dad just didn't understand that Sammy needed something more than this life. Dean acknowledged it, even though he'd never admit it out loud.

They got to the school with at least fifteen minutes to spare. As soon as the Impala had rolled to a stop, Sam had pulled open the door and leapt from the car. Dean stared after his little brother in saddened confusion. Dean turned to John just in time to see his face flicker in pain before he turned away.

"I'll be gone for two, three weeks, at the most." John said gruffly, not meeting Dean's gaze. "I'll call you boys tonight. And Dean . . . take care of Sam."

"I always do," Dean replied indifferently.

John just nodded after a few seconds and Dean jumped out of the car, glad to see Sam had stayed by the front door waiting for him. Some things never changed.

"Hey," Dean said, ruffling Sam's hair. It hit him as weird, the fact that Sam was almost as tall as Dean. He wasn't exactly Dean's _little brother _any more. "You know dad doesn't mean it, right?"

Sam just snorted and pulled open the school doors. "Yeah right." The halls of this school were no different than the last five million that Sam and Dean had attended. The lockers painted the school colors, the posters and signs proclaiming the next big school activity.

Student littered the hallways, only the odd few even glancing at Sam and Dean, and that came as a relief. In most schools if a new student came, _everyone _stared.

"Excuse me," Sam said softly, politely tapping on a girls shoulder. Her hair was soft blond, completely straight, and when she turned around, he could see that her eyes were an enchanting shade of pale green. Sam had to shake his head to think clearly. "Uh . . . can you tell us where the office is?"

"New here?" The girl asked, smiling widely and showing brilliant white teeth.

"Yeah, just moved here," Sam said quickly.

"Well, welcome to James Murray High School, home of the famously terrible Ravens. Seriously, our team _sucks_. Don't ever bet on them." She grinned warmly and clutched her notebook to her chest.

"They can't be that bad," Sam shrugged. "I'm Sam, by the way."

"Aisllinn." The girl responded, smiling at Sam again before smiling over his shoulder. Sam was glad; maybe she wouldn't notice that her smile left him dazed. "And you are . . . ?"

"Dean, his brother." Dean replied, and from the sly glances he was directing at Sam, Sam knew what his brother was thinking.

_Sammy likes a girl . . . Wow, life changing revelation._

Sam absentmindedly punched Dean's arm and Aisllinn giggled. "It's just at the end of the hall, to the right," Aisllinn directed, pointing down one of the three halls that branched off from the main gather space.

"Okay, thanks," Sam said earnestly, while Dean just shook his head and grabbed his brothers arm, pulling him towards the direction Aisllinn had told them to go. "I'll see you later?" Sam called out over his shoulder.

Aisllinn laughed as she turned away. "You wouldn't have had a choice,"

"Sammy . . ." Dean taunted, smirking at Sam as they walked down the hall.

"Shut up, Dean." Sam growled, feeling the heat of embarrassment flood his face.

"Just saying," Dean grumbled, throwing his hands up in defence. "You could do worse. A lot worse. Remember that girl back in east Texas . . .?"

Sam in fact _did_ remember that girl in east Texas, a girl named Gillian who had stalked Sam until he'd been forced to go out with her. Sam shuddered; he still hadn't gotten the taste out of his mouth. Dean noticed Sam's discomfort and laughed. No, Sam had learned his lesson far too late.

The office was like any other the brothers had ever entered; official and gray and _boring_. The staff and teachers were haggard and about ready to drop dead. Just another boring, ordinary, _normal_ school.

Still Sam felt so out of place, even though he pleaded to the highest power to let him fit in. It wasn't even that Sam _wanted_ to fit in; he liked that he could take care of himself and that his family was a little out of the norm. Sam just wanted to feel like he fit in somewhere else other than the backseat of a '67 Impala.

Once Sam and Dean had received their separate time tables and a photocopied map of the school layout, they exited the office. Sam stared at the time table forlornly, noting that his first class was Gym. Fortunately though after that he had English, his favourite class.

"Seriously Sammy, are you okay?" Dean asked abruptly, pulling Sam to the side of the hall as the bell rang. Sam played ignorant and gave his brother a confused glance. "With dad and everything? You know he does his job to keep us safe."

Sam sighed and knew the only way he was going to get to class was to tell Dean. "I know, it's just . . . this is the fifth school this year, Dean. And after we finish school, he expects us to go into hunting. I don't want to hunt for the rest of my life, Dean. And dad keeps on saying as soon as he finds the thing that killed mom, but that was almost fifteen years ago." Dean was about to interrupt when Sam hushed him, noticing a few passersby who were staring at them. After they'd walked by, Sam whispered, "Do you even remember when dad wasn't a hunter? How could you spend fifteen years of your life hunting and then just stop? I don't want to make that _my_ life too, man."

Dean's gaze darkened as he stared at his little brother. He'd learned the hard way that the best thing to do was listen to their father, and he wasn't ready to forget it any time soon. "Dad promised, Sam. We just have to trust him."

Sam shook his head half-heartedly in disgust. "I'm not a kid anymore, Dean. I trust dad enough not to drop us off on the side of the road. That's it." With that, Sam stalked away in the direction he hoped was the gym; he was already late, and getting lost was so not on his list of things to do today.

After ten minutes of futile wandering, Sam made his way to the schools rather small gym, but that was to be expected in such a small town. As soon as he walked through the blue double doors, one thing was apparent; Sam had been put in with _those_ kids. Those kids who you try to get away from during Jr. High because they never listen to the teachers and made you get bad marks if they were put in a group with you. Sam sighed dejectedly and slung his backpack higher on his shoulder. Keeping his eyes on the scuffed hardwood flooring, Sam dragged his feet forward, going completely unnoticed by the group of guys sitting in the corner and the cluster of girls who all looked like they'd purposefully shrunk their gym-strip so things showed that definitely weren't supposed to. He sincerely hoped this wouldn't be one of those gym classes where the teacher actually _tries_ to get the kids to participate. Sam had enough training and practice to worry about at home.

The only thing that caused Sam to look up was the familiar soft whimsical voice. He glanced up and immediately located the poofy blonde head at the front of the limited group of kids and smiled to himself. Maybe this class wouldn't be such a _total_ waste . . .

As Sam drew closer, he listened to Aisllinn's voice in an attempt to figure out what torture they were going to call 'fitness' today. ". . . and if you're weak-" Aisllinn was saying.

The short, dark haired female teacher interrupted her with a sharp comment. "We don't use the term weak, Miss Hart."

Sam caught Aisllinn's eye and she winked, causing several of the students to turn around and stare at Sam. She rolled her eyes and sighed at the teacher. "Okay, if you're muscularly challenged." She cast a mischievous smirk at the teacher. "Better?" Aisllinn asked.

Sam got the impression that this wasn't the first time the blonde had talked back to the teacher and the adult seemed to realize it a lost cause and she shook her head, only noticing Sam at that point. The teachers smile was strained as she turned to Sam and motioned him forward.

"You must be Sam Winchester." The nameless teacher announced to the class and he could feel all their eyes on him. Sam ducked his head as he felt the blush creep up his face. "I'm Miss Dellous."

Miss Dellous then proceeded to introduce him to the rest of the class, most of whose names he promptly forgot, and told him that since it was his first day, Sam wasn't required to put on the gym-strip for today. Apparently, Aisllinn had been in the middle of explaining her warm-up routine that all the students were required to make; excluding Sam. _Thank God._ After Aisllinn's warm-up which, obviously, Sam wasn't required to participate in, Miss Dellous confirmed Sam's worst fear.

"Today, we will be working on self-defence."

Fighting.

A skill that Sam had learned when he was barely nine years old. A skill that he'd had to perfect over the last five years.

So when Miss Dellous asked if any of the students had previous training for pairing purposes, Sam was forced to raise his hand reluctantly. Fortunately, there was at least _some_one on Sam's side today, and Aisllinn was the only other student who had had any form of training, which automatically made them partners, despite Miss Dellous's fears that Sam would be able to easily overpower Aisllinn. True to Aisllinn's nature that Sam had consistently seen in the last half hour, Aisllinn responded by saying that Miss. Dellous was a sexist, hypocritical woman who needed to set boundaries between herself and her students.

Sam didn't understand how this girl was still living after some of the comments she'd been bold enough to say.

"So," Aisllinn drawled as they rolled out the yoga mats on the gym floor. "Winchester? Like the rifle?"

Sam laughed as they set their shoes on the side; he was even forced to remove his hoodie. As Sam went to the middle of the mat, he turned to Aisllinn and said, "Yeah, like the rifle. And congratulations on being the hundredth person to make that joke."

Aisllinn giggled and walked over to Sam, standing almost nose to nose with her partner. "Wanna play seriously, or just par?" She asked softly, her eyes gleaming.

Sam raised his brow and chuckled. "You think you can handle it?"

Aisllinn smirked. "Only if you think you can handle _me_."

Sam paused, considering actually fighting this girl, not knowing how well she could keep up. Sam was used to fighting, and either killing something or fatally hurting it. He could practise with Dean because for the majority of the time, Dean could always hold his own against him.

"Hey, who am I to turn down-" abruptly, she threw out her hand and aimed it for Sam's face; Sam blocked and grabbed her forearm, twisting it behind her back and pinning her against his chest with lightning speed.

As a gasp erupted from Aisllinn's mouth, Sam eased his grip in concern that he'd accidently hurt her. Just as his grip slackened, Aisllinn twisted up, spun her torso and threw her arms against Sam's chest, hooking her foot around his ankle. Sam promptly collapsed backwards and sat there, momentarily stunned.

"Well," Sam glanced up to see Aisllinn's illuminated form hovering above him. "_You've_ obviously never fought a girl before."


End file.
